All's Well That
Ends Well presents the customary material of
Comedy—the triumph of love over obstacles—-in a grotesque and ambivalent light,
and this has led most scholars to place it with Measure for Measure and
Troilus and Cressida among the so-called Problem Plays. Like its fellows,
All's Well centers on sex and social relations and offers no sure and convincing
resolution at its concision, leading its audiences to recognize the inadequacy
of humanity to live up to the grand ideals and happy endings of literary
romance. Nevertheless, All's Well is humorous, and it does in the end offer the
traditional comedic resolution, albeit in muted form.

Though love is the play's
most prominent subject, there is a marked absence of the mutual joy of earlier
Shakespearean lovers—as in, say. Much Ado About Nothing Helena is
obsessed with a clearly inferior man whose response to her is wholly negative
until his grudging and heavily qualified acceptance at the close and she wins
him only through the rather sordid 'bed trick' The comments of the Lords, the
Clown, and other characters deflate the main plot even further. However,
although the play supports negative interpretations, it is clear that
Shakespeare did not intend such views to predominate. They are effectively
countered by the positive attitudes of the Countess, the King, and Lafew. The
playwright is careful to build his lovers up and to minimize the vileness of the
bed trick, and he provided the traditional reconciliation scene at the close of
the play. Moreover, in Helena's persistent pursuit of Bertram despite his
manifest unworthiness, some commentators have seen an allegory of Christian
grace, though others disagree. In any case, many critics see an artistic failure
in the playwright's attempt to force his naturalistic presentation of Bertram's
snobbery and Helena's manipulation into the traditional mould of reconciliation
comedy. That All's Well is weaker than many other Shakespearean dramas is widely
conceded, but it remains of considerable interest precisely because of its
conflict between naturalism and romantic fantasy. Though somewhat unsatisfying
in its own terms, the play constitutes a step towards the Romances, where a
different approach to the same conflict yields more successful results.

All's Well centere on
Helena. Though she is sometimes seen by critics as a satirical portrait of a
possessive woman, this view seems contrary to Shakespeare's intentions, for he
presents her in the most flattering of lights. She is the subject of highly
complimentary remarks by the Countess and Lafew at the play's outset, and the
King also admires her, both before and after the success other medicine. In
restoring a dying monarch to health, she resembles an heroine of age-old
legends, and she takes on an appropriate aura of undoubted goodness. Later, the
Widow and Diana welcome her into their lives enthusiastically, and upon her
return to those who believe her dead, in 5.3, she is received with the awe due a
goddess. Moreover, her immediate resolution of all problems seems to justify
this reverence; she is a virtual deus ex machina.

The only cause for
Bertram's rejection of Helena is her non-aristocratic status. In this respect
she becomes an emblem of the play's point: true nobility resides in the spirit
of an individual, not in his or her rank in the social hierarchy. This idea is
expounded by the King when he chastises Bertram's snobbery, observing that 'From
lowest place when virtuous things proceed, / The place is dignified by th'
doer's deed' (2.3.125-126). Significantly, Helena's inferior social status was
invented by Shakespeare for this purpose. In his source, both lovers were
aristocrats of equal rank.

Given Helena's highly
positive characteristics, the bed trick places her in less disrepute than it
otherwise might. It may be seen as a symbol rather than a realistic manoeuver, a
mere plot device that fulfils our expectation that Helena will get her man. In
the source, the bed trick results in the presentation of twin sons to the unwary
father, but the playwright purposefully muted this outcome to an almost
unnoticeable implication that Helena is pregnant in 5.3.307. Moreover, the
extreme artificiality of the device, combined with its familiarity to
Shakespeare's audience as an element of traditional folklore, help to distance
its squalor from Helena's nobility of spirit. Lastly, its importance is further
minimized by the prominence given to the exposure of Parolles while it is taking
place. Helena is established as an heroine in the first half of the play, and
thereafter—when her actions might not seem heroic—she plays a relatively minor
role, becoming a central figure again only in the play's last moments.

Bertram, too, is favorably
presented in the first half of the play. The Countess and the King both praise
him, the Duke of Florence grants him high command despite his youth, and the
First and Second Lords, while deploring his morals, recognize his potential
worth and hope that their exposure of Parolles will cause the young count to
'take a measure of his own judgments' (4.3.31-32). Though his faults are plainly
evident, Shakespeare's unmistakable position is that Bertram has underlying
merit. The possibility that the young man will mature and reform is present
throughout the play, helping us to accept his folly.

The nearest character to a
villain in All's Well is Parolles. He is a braggart and a coward, and the depths
of his ignobility are exposed when he proves willing to betray his comrades to
save his life. Parolles offers another example of the moral that nobility is a
matter of spirit, not rank: although a gentleman, apparently on a par with
Bertram, he is presented from the outset as an unworthy man. Much of the blame
we might otherwise attach to Bertram is placed on Parolles, who encourages his
young friend in his errors and who precedes him in suffering humiliation and
downfall. However, Parolles' very villainy makes him an appropriate object of
redemption, and his response to his humiliation is telling, for he is resilient;
he accepts his own nature and vows to go on as best he can, espousing the highly
sympathetic sentiment that 'There's place and means for every man alive' (4.3.
328). In this spirit, he falls within range of the play's reconciliation,
finding a new career as jester to his old enemy, Lafew.

The basic developments of
All's Well were provided by the play's source material, but Shakespeare inserted
some significant details. Several new characters present distinctive slants on
the action. As we have seen, Parolles deflects unfavorable attention from
Bertram, while Lafew, the Countess, and the King (who appears in the source
material but is much less prominent) are entirely wise and generous, in contrast
to the more problematic major characters. They are elderly and are concerned
with thoughts of death and fond recollections of their own youth, but, unlike
the older characters in standard comedies of the day, they are not the
opposition who must be defeated for love to triumph. Instead, they are benign
figures who offer understanding and support for the lovers, thus establishing a
context that muffles the unpleasant aspects of the story.

We have seen that
Shakespeare intended his lovers to be well regarded, and the final
reconciliation is in no way rendered impossible by the moral defects of the
characters, as it seems to be in Troilus and Cressida. Helena is a
paragon of virtue, despite the machinations to which she is driven, and Bertram,
who is admittedly sinful, is also forgivable. Nevertheless, the ambiguous nature
of the lovers' relations puts a strain on the play's conclusion, and Shakespeare
tightens this strain to an almost unbearable pitch as he postpones Helena's
reappearance. Bertram disgraces himself ever more fully with lies and evasions,
and even Diana is duplicitous in not revealing Helena's presence. The emotional
tension that this generates is made evident even as it is relaxed, when Lafew
admits that his 'eyes smell onions' (5.3.314) and borrows Parolles*
handkerchief. This moment also clinches Lafew's acceptance of Parolles, and thus
the two most corrupt characters—Parolles and Bertram—are forgiven. The scene's
complex emotional tone reflects the reality of its world: as in life, happiness
m All's Well That Ends Well is unpredictable and emerges, if at all, only
through 'The web of our life [which] is of a mingled yarn, good and ill
together' (4.3.68-69). Yet in the play's final line, the King fully expresses
the spirit of traditional comedic resolution: 'The bitter past, more welcome is
the sweet' (5.3.328).

Nonetheless, though the
play's title—a proverb used twice by Helena, in 4.4.35 and 5.1.25—refers plainly
to the conventionally happy ending of romantic comedy, Helena's happiness is
just as clearly precarious. When she finally asks for Bertram's acceptance, he
replies only to the King and only conditionally, in 5.3.309-310. Fittingly, the
King's remark in the play's next-to-last line—wittily playing on the title—is
ambiguous: 'All yet seems well' (5.3.327) is as far as he can go. Bertram and
Helena's marital bliss is doubtful.

The naturalism of the
play—its well-drawn characters and credible social milieu—leads us to expect a
more plausible denouement, and we emerge dissatisfied. The romance of an
adventurous maiden who can cure kings is unsuccessfully integrated with the more
realistic tale of sexual intrigue, and the two components of which the play is
made—a psychologically real world versus a conventionally comic one—merge at the
end only at a considerable cost in dramatic power.

The conclusion of All's
Well unquestionably lessens its effectiveness, but if the play is considered in
light of Shakespeare's development, its failings seem less significant and its
ending less arbitrary. The problem plays are similar to the romances in a number
of ways: both depend on unrealistic stories, and both emphasize the power of
noble spirituality over circumstances. Particularly in their conclusions, both
favor symbolism and ritual over psychological realism. However, in All's Well
(as in Measure for Measure, especially), the latter element still has
great power, and the balance between the two is uncomfortable, barring a firm
sense that spiritual values have indeed triumphed, despite the play's assertion
that they have. Cymbeline and The Winter's Tale, like All's Well,
have endings that tax belief and that depend on the evocation of supernatural
powers while maintaining the underlying assumption that naturalistic causes have
in fact been operating. However, whereas the contradictions of All's Well
generate an atmosphere of conflict and stress, similar polarities in the later
plays yield a pleasurable sense of life's many aspects. In All's Well That
Ends Well, Shakespeare had not yet developed the capacity to sublimate
reality without denying it, but his instincts were leading him in that
direction.